Node wars

Node governments may declare war on another node and rally citizens to the cause.

• This mutually flags the citizens of the warring nodes, including their allies, as combatants.
  • Social organizations quests will either be cooperative or adversarial based on the war status of their parent nodes.
• Vassal nodes cannot declare a node war on their parent node or any of their vassals.
• Node wars can be declared at any time, but the objectives will only spawn during server prime-time.
  • Players can kill each other at any time during the war (not only during server prime-time).
• Node wars affect reputation between the nodes.

We have conditions that you can set between nodes with regards to either nodes being friendly with each other and acting trade alliances, or they can declare war on nodes similar to how guild wars may function in different games, where those citizens become hostile to each other based on the player government that's elected in the particular node. So those systems all cater to allowing a conflict that's meaningful and that also provides a non-imbalanced relationship between stronger guilds and not as strong guilds. – Steven Sharif

Server prime-time

Objective-based PvP events such as node sieges, castle sieges, guild wars, and node wars will occur within a prime-time window somewhere between 3PM and 9PM server time. This is subject to testing.

• Guild wars and node wars can be declared at any time, but the objectives will only spawn during the prime-time window.

Node-to-node reputation

Example Ren'Kai node policy affecting node-to-node reputation.

Node-to-node reputation activities include trade agreements and wars between nodes.

• Completing mayoral commissions will reward node-to-node reputation.

Leadership powers

Depiction of a mayor.

The government has a lot of say in the direction of the node's development. Directing assets, building projects, tax allocation, defensive ability etc. Players have the ability to not only create these cities, but they have the right of self-governance.

Mayoral leadership powers are granted to mayors via the use of mandates.

• Initiate buy orders using gold from the node treasury.

• Initiate mayoral commissions to aid node development.

• Adjust node taxes. This includes setting tax rates that apply to tavern games.
  • Tax money may only be used to fund node development.

• Initiate service building construction and expansions.

• Improving node defensive structures, such as stronger walls and gates, traps, and siege equipment.
  • Hiring mercenary NPCs to defend the node during sieges.

• Set a message-of-the-day for the node.

• Proposing node policies that are voted on by citizens.
  • Mayors won't have formal systems to carry out surveys/polls of node citizens, but they will be able to utilize node citizen chat or message-of-the-day services.
  • Mayors may have special color names in node chat channels.

• Entering into trade agreements with other nodes.
  • Coordinate the transfer of needed supplies with citizens operating caravans.

• Mayors don't get a free home, but they do have offices in the town hall.

• Mayors cannot denote players as enemies of the state. Previously this was a potential option.

• Declaring war on another node and rallying citizens to the cause.

• Mayors are notified when their node is named on a siege declaration scroll.
  • The mayoral title unlocks special abilities and stats during sieges or events.

• Mayors will have an emblem generation suite that allows them to create their node flag.

• Mayors gain new powers and responsibilities as their node advances.

• Some decisions require the mayor to be present in the ZOI of the node. Most do not.

• If a mayor does not make certain decisions within a set period of time then the system will make a decision for them.

Q: Are all the benefits that mayors can give to a node the same for every type of node, or are there differences per type of node?

A: There definitely are differences... Some of the things that mayors can do are more universal, but then some systems have very specific if your node has a certain dominant race, or your node is a certain type, or it's in a certain biome. So there's even differences between where it is too. – Chris Justo

Some of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.

• Choosing a node name from a predetermined list.

• Guilds do not control nodes. Guild leaders (kings and queens) can become mayors of nodes.
  • Guilds hold separate roles in the direction of the node than the roles held by private citizens.
  • Only a certain number of guilds may participate in these roles.
  • Separate guild roles are reserved for small, medium and large guilds.

Node politics

There won't be a civil war mechanic within nodes but there will be scope for internal political conflicts; such as undermining the current leadership and disrupting trade.

• The only way to remove an elected mayor prior to the end of their term is by destroying the node.

We want consequences to matter and if that person got elected then you need to work within the means of the mechanics to get them unelected. – Steven Sharif

Node sieges

Node sieges (Pre-alpha footage).

As some areas in the world grow, others will fall. This is the foundation of the living, breathing world that is Ashes of Creation, where players will have the ability to make important decisions that matter in the longevity of an area becoming a city, or whether to siege a rival town. Rise above the ashes, create the world around you, and be a part of the story that unfolds because of your actions and decisions. – Margaret Krohn

Node sieges enable players to destroy nodes starting at Village (stage 3). This paves the way for new development and access to the locked content in surrounding nodes. Due to this dynamic, political strife and intrigue play an important role in the structure of the world.

• Sieging nodes will not be an easy task for the attackers. Cities and metropolises will have a considerable defensive advantage.

• There will be systems that mimic some of the mechanics of sieges, but there won't be practice sieges.

• Death penalties do not apply to objective-based events such as node sieges.

If you own a home in a node and you don't want to see that home destroyed, you need to defend that city! – Steven Sharif

• The majority (~80%) of content in Ashes of Creation is open-world but there may be instanced battles within castle and node sieges where specific groups can participate in small, short-duration objective-based battles for specific waypoints.

Read more...

See also

• Nodes
• Node sieges
• Node governments
• Mayors